Egypt's Copts hostage to Muslim Brotherhood threats

Coptic Christians were warned it they protested against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi during his visit to the U.S., they would suffer, reports from Egypt said.

The speech is over, but the retaliation is happening anyway.

Egyptian human rights activist and journalist Wagih Yacoub says protests or not, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is acting on those threats.

“We’ve seen it today. People are going to the Sinai, shooting at Christian’s shops. They’re telling the people to leave their homes,” Yacoub said. “It’s especially because they are Christians.”

“The Muslim Brotherhood people are going there to the Sinai and declaring that it is an Islamic state,” Yacoub said.

Yacoub says reports of the threats were real.

“Morsi sent one of his representatives to threaten the church. The representatives told the Copts that there would be retaliation if there were protests against Mosi,” Yacoub said.

“The Coptic Church issued a statement today urging the government to secure the Coptic churches and to stop the violence, but the government is doing nothing,” Yacoub said.

“The Copts are being evicted from Rafa in Sinai and have been evicted from Basshur, and the government has done nothing at all,” Yacoub said. “There is no security; they’re not doing anything.”

“Morsi is the executive, he has the control of the government after he took over the military, and he has the power in his hands. The government is now mostly run by the Muslim Brotherhood,” Yacoub said. “He is worse than Mubarak and this is part of the plan of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

“This is the case. The threats are real; after all, they are being made by the moderate Islamist president himself and his cabinet – not the every-day radical on the streets,” Ibrahim said.

“Morsi especially made his position clear when a few weeks ago, and contrary to his election-time promises to Copts, he hired only one Copt – a woman – to his new cabinet, even though Copts argue that four representatives would be a more appropriate number considering the size of the Christian population, which according to the Coptic church is 14 percent,” Ibrahim said.

“The Muslim Brotherhood are masters at manipulating time, that is, implementing their vision incrementally,” Ibrahim said.

An Egyptian citizen living in Cairo, who asked not to be named for security reasons confirmed, Ibrahim and Yacoub’s reports.

“The newly elected Egyptian Islamist President Morsi, a member of the radical Muslim Brotherhood, has directly threatened the Coptic Church in Egypt to prevent U.S. Copts going out to protest against him in New York during his U.N. visit,” the Cairo resident said.

“It was made in clear, unambigious terms the president would take retaliatory measures against the church if U.S. Copts participate in any demonstrations against him, or during his speech. Magdi Khalil described the threat as cheap blackmail and appealed to the masses of the Copts abroad not to succumb to this threat and blackmail,” the Cairo resident said.

“Morsi’s Facebook also said several Muslim organizations, in partnership with the Egyptian Embassy in America, plan to organize pro-Brotherhood demonstrations to welcome the Egyptian President and chant for him as though he came on the wings of the Egyptian revolution to implement their demands,” WND was told.